


Sutured Future

by lalazee



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Horse Racing, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Ereri Week, M/M, Scars, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-26 04:57:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20736593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lalazee/pseuds/lalazee
Summary: Levi’s soul scar was on his ass, so he sure as hell wasn’t about to meet his partner any time soon - or ever. Add that to the shortlist of shit for which he was grateful.A soul-scar AU.





	Sutured Future

**Author's Note:**

> Ereri Week 2019 | Day 1: Scars

Levi’s soul scar was on his ass, so he sure as hell wasn’t about to meet his partner any time soon - or ever. Add that to the shortlist of shit for which he was grateful. 

While he knew his soulmate or whatever was out there with an obvious scar over his right eye, Levi had yet to meet one of them in person and he was content to keep it that way.

Life was good. Fast and busy and even fun, at times. Making a living as a jockey didn’t leave much space for relaxation. If he wasn’t racing, he was employed on Erwin’s family farm, helping raise and break in the next generation of winners. When the daily life of million dollar animals were in your hands, a guy’s personal life went on hold real fucking fast.

And that was good, too. Levi was more of a fuck and run, anyway. Kind of like the stallions they bred off to the highest bidder. 

However, Levi’s relatively peaceful life had been better.

Things that were _ not _ so good right now? The Disney prince his cousin Mikasa was currently introducing to him as their resident veterinarian in the wake of Pixis’ retirement. 

Was it because he was a tall bronze drink of water with with eyes like Caribbean seas and a douchey man bun? No. Was the problem the way he smiled and held out a slender hand, his grin amped to a disgusting setting of charm? Hell no. Levi had met his fair share of stupidly gorgeous people in his thirty-seven years. Big deal.

What set his jaw on edge and his eyes sharpening to silver shrapnel as he ignored the offered hand was the dynamic slash of a pale scar carved through this guy’s right eyebrow, cutting down his eyelid and out the bottom of his lower lashes. Time had healed it away from the garish pink it must have been ten years ago when a haughty mare had kicked Levi square in the eye, crushing his orbital bone and landing him in the hospital with a nasty concussion. 

Of course, the wound had healed without a scar, leaving Levi open to a multitude of knowing looks and smug smiles.

There was no way this could be him, Levi thought sourly as he pocketed his hands and narrowly considered the faltering smile of the guy before him. This kid barely passed for drinking age. How old had he been when he’d gotten the scar? How old was he _ now _ to be qualified enough to act as head veterinary services for some of America’s most prized horses?

“_Levi_,” Mikasa hissed.

“What did you say your name was again?” Levi drawled, schooling his features into cool detachment as he watched the way his possible soulmate awkwardly shifted from one well-worn work boot to the other.

Blue-no-green-no-blue eyes flicked to Levi’s and held, the guy’s thick, dramatic brows rising in surprise.

“Uh, Eren. Eren Jaeger. It’s nice to meet you! I’ve watched your races since I was a kid.”

Oh, for fuck’s sake. He was practically a baby.

“Sure,” Levi said, waving him off with a hand. “That it? I got shit to do. Gotta check on Maria Rose.”

“She’s pregnant from Humanity’s Strongest Soldier, right?” Eren jumped in, gaze aglow with exuberance as he looked between Mikasa and Eren. “I can’t believe I’ll get to be here to deliver Smith Family Farms’ next winner!”

“Who says they’ll be a winner?” Levi asked, patting his back pockets for a pack of cigarettes on instinct. He inwardly cursed himself for quitting almost a year ago. Now of _ all _ times, he wanted to puff away the anxieties catching hold of his throat in the face of a beautiful face and its telling scar. “Might be a weakling, might sell ‘em off, we don’t know yet.”

“There’s no way.” Eren looked determined as he shook his head. “I don’t believe that for a second.”

Despite himself, Levi’s lips twitched.

“Yeah, maybe.”

“Levi manages most of the behavioral training around here,” Mikasa cut in, and Levi had almost forgotten she was standing beside Eren all this time. She almost looked amused. Levi scowled darkly in turn as she spoke. “Puts them through their paces on top of a hundred other things he’s not paid for and shouldn’t do because that’s what farmhands are for.”

“They don’t know the horses half as well as me,” Levi said. When Mikasa only rolled her eyes, he shrugged. “Can’t argue it.”

“Wouldn’t dare,” Mikasa muttered. Perking up, she linked an arm around Eren’s lithe, muscular one and gave him a tug. The familiar action shocked a spark of something unfamiliar between Levi’s ribs. “Come on, you’ve got paperwork to finalize. Then we have to slog through Pixis’ office. He was organized, but definitely had his own system of doing things. I don’t even know if he knew how to use a computer.”

A comical shadow of dread dropped over Eren’s expression, his strong shoulders slumping as he leaned into her.

“Alright, I guess. I hate paperwork. It’s the least fun part of _ anything_. Show me more horses!”

“You two know each other,” Levi said, pissed off all the more at how overtly interested he sounded. His day was getting shittier by the second. 

“We went to university together,” Mikasa said, the slight side-tilt of her chin speaking volumes to her growing suspicion. Normally Levi would say hello to any newbie and walk away like they never existed. “The first four years, anyway. I brought him to events before, but you were busy. You might know his brother, Zeke.”

Levi blinked, sharp mind sifting through quick files and pulling up the haughty, know it all fucker who worked for Marley Farms over in Ireland. Upon closer inspection, there were similarities in the high cheekbones and strong nose, the jaw and shape of eyes. 

“You don’t sound Irish,” Levi said flatly. Despite the last name, Zeke most definitely was a born and bred Irishman, a man who lived and breathed horses as did many a man and woman over on the green isle. 

“Er, yeah, I’m not.” Eren shugged, those bright ocean eyes shifting and roiling as he offered a thin smile. “We didn’t grow up together or anything. He was a first marriage deal. Just me and my mom on this side of the pond, working at my father’s second farm.”

“The history lesson can come later,” Mikasa said, once more tugging on Eren’s arm to break his and Levi’s lingering eye contact. “Over drinks with the crew tonight, maybe. We haven’t got anything on tomorrow. Erwin won’t care. Now come _ on _. The day is wasting.”

“Right, right,” Eren mumbled, turning at her insistence and glancing over his shoulder as he left the barn. Hell, were his legs _ long_. “Bye, Levi. It’s a pleasure to work with you.”

“Say that again a week from now,” he said, coaxing his body into perfect stillness when Eren’s smile flashed white as sun sparkling on the sea. 

Levi stood there longer than he should as he watched them leave. Unconsciously, he rubbed a hand over the scar on his ass.

“Ah, shit.”

  
  


“Another!” Jean cheered as he turned over a sloppy shot glass with a naked pinup printed on the side. The crew cramped around the small kitchen table groaned, although Connie dragged the bottle of Malort across the sticky wood and began to pour a fourth round. 

“My mouth tastes like gym socks,” Eren said, face scrunched as he rolled his tongue around his mouth and lips without any tact whatsoever. “This is awful. When does it end?”

“You just have to wait Jean out until he loses consciousness,” Armin said from his spot at the kitchen counter where he was drowning a giant platter of tortilla chips in cheap-ass microwaved queso. Levi was so fucking hungry he’d eat it at this point, he didn’t care. Partying at Jean’s was always a blight to his entire body. And while normally he didn’t participate - he was way too old for these kids and he was past the point in his life where he just bounced back from a night of destroying his brain function -

Eren was here. Sitting right next to him, straddling his chair like a goddamn cowboy, their thighs and shoulders pressed firmly together in tight proximity. He smelled like a day’s work, despite Levi being dubious that he’d actually done anything today. Like fresh hay and clover, the earthy musk of the horses and some kind of bright, fresh body spray he’d probably tried to cover it all up with.

So Levi was a little curious. Fucking sue him.

“It won’t be long,” Mikasa said, picking up her shot and holding it high for everyone else to match.

“Fuck you guys,” Jean slurred, his eyelids hooded and heavy as he jabbed his glass at everyone until they took theirs too. “We’re welcoming this asshole into the fold. Gotta show him we do it right.”

“No wonder my dad fired you,” Eren muttered, just before they all knocked back their putrid drinks. 

Jean slammed his glass down, sputtering.

“Fuck you, Jaeger! He didn’t fire me ‘cause I wasn’t doing my job - he fired me ‘cause I got a punch in on your pansy ass!”

Connie coughed and made a face around his drink as he considered the brown dishwater liquid left at the bottom of his glass.

“Punching the owner’s son sounds like a surefire train to fired town.”

“Shut up, baldly,” Jean snapped, shoving from the table to stand on wavering legs.

“I’m not balding, it’s shaved! I shaved it!”

“It’s okay if you’re balding, babe,” Sasha mumbled, then squealed with glee as Armin dropped the tray of nachos before the group. “Finally! My body is ready.”

“Leave some for the rest of us,” Mikasa said, already around a full mouth.

“You lost your job because you kept coming into work hung over,” Eren said pointedly, fogged-over seaside eyes lingering on the chip drowning in the most cheese as he plucked it from the pile. “Not because I couldn't take you. Which I could. And have.”

“Just how many of you already know each other?” Levi asked, one of the first full sentences he’d spoken all night. He preferred to watch and listen - both to learn, to stay out of stupid drama, and because he was shit at small talk. 

Erwin had hired this crew at different points in the past years, but the world of racing was small, and the amount of people willing to spend their lives working with horses even smaller, so overlap was bound to happen.

Connie had come in as Levi’s protege, compact and quick and simple-minded enough that he could do one thing and only one thing extremely well - jockey. He’d weedled Sasha in as a hire shortly after, someone who groomed and fed and helped with the heavy, messy work he’d seen a lot of full grown men turn their nose up at. She was a farm-born kid, through and through, and no job was below or above her. 

Mikasa had been working here since before she’d graduated, walking in Levi’s steps and needling jobs out of him until Erwin had realized she was as dutiful and sharply intelligent as her cousin. She’d been with Erwin Family Farms since she’d been twenty, some seven years ago now. 

She’d brought in Armin shortly after, who was also a university friend, and despite his age - he was younger than everyone here and had graduated early from both high school and college - was a bookkeeper for the farm. Both he and Erwin seemed to have the most bizarre connection revolving around the neatness of numbers and budgeting. It gave Levi the fucking creeps.

Jean had rolled in not long after Mikasa, holding the most obvious, blazing candle for her that Levi had ever seen. It made him nauseous to watch. At first he’d thought they’d gone to school with each other and that was how they’d known each other, but now it was clear that Jean had known Mikasa through Eren, and knew Eren from even longer ago than Mikasa had been working for Erwin. 

Mikasa only sighed and shook her head as Jean stomped off to his bedroom and slammed the door. No one had any doubt he was using a dramatic exit so he could go to sleep first. 

“Jean and I went to high school together,” Eren said, rolling his eyes and sucking liquid cheese off of two fingers. This fucker was too distracting for Levi’s health. He was an entire problem wrapped up in a bow. “He’s always been like this.”

“And you two dated,” Armin pointed out, piling jalapenos off the nachos to tower onto one chip.

Levi went still, mouth closed around a chip but unchewing, attention rapt on Eren’s expression. 

“There’s _ that_,” Mikasa said, snorting a laugh through her nose as if she’d forgotten.

“_Please_.” Eren looked a little pale as he dragged a hand down his face. “I don’t - let’s never speak of it again.”

“But it’s so _ funny _,” Mikasa said, face unholy gleeful now. Even in the two times Levi had seen her around Eren, he’d discovered an entirely more open version of his cousin. Eren’s easy laughter and instant emotional reactions to his peers seemed to loosen the entire mood of everyone around the table. 

There was no way this guy was meant for Levi.

“It’s not!” Eren sputtered, but now he was laughing into his hands, palms covering his face. From Levi’s spot at his side, he could catch the corner of his upturned mouth, the flush to his tanned cheeks, the way his ears went red. “It’s awful, it was awful! I learned my lesson and I’ve never looked back.”

“Oh, sure,” Mikasa said, lifting a can of beer to her lips as she cast her gaze aside. “And now you don’t date anyone who doesn’t have a scar on their ass.”

Levi dropped a cheesy nacho to his lap and cursed.

“It’s better to be up front and ask instead of wasting my time with someone I won’t end up with!” Eren said, still chuckling as he offered Levi a crumpled paper towel from the table. “You alright there? At least you’re wearing black.”

“Are you really a part of the crew if you don’t have a piece of clothing with queso stains on them, though,” Sasha said, dragging a chip through the cheese left at the bottom of the plate. 

“That’s an awful reflection of what it means to be in our company,” Armin said. “But also not inaccurate.”

“I need sleep,” Levi said tersely, standing and tossing the napkin to the table. 

“Aw.” Eren was looking up at him now, gaze all wide disappointment, and wasn’t this a nice angle to look down on him. That scar, though. It glared at him, a stark accusation paired with Mikasa’s revelation. “Are you sure?”

“It’s late.” Levi refrained from brushing a stray wisp of hair from Eren’s brow, his stupid manbun coming loose and undone from the day. Levi wondered what Eren looked like, loose and undone. It was enough to stiffen his entire frame with the control it took not to bunch his fist in that lush hair and yank him in for a searing, searching kiss. “And unlike you brats, I’ve got horses to see to before the sun rises.”

“I’ll walk you home,” Eren said, standing now and towering before him like something Levi wanted to climb and take down. 

Levi raised a brow. 

“Don’t be fucking stupid. Good night.”

A myriad of slurred and sleepy goodnights were called out as he turned and made for the door. Without looking back, he stepped into the deep, crisp autumn night and inhaled the mellow scent of wet, rich earth and the bite of an incoming cold front. 

His brains tipped and sloshed like waves catching on the winds of a storm, and despite knowing this was just the alcohol talking, Levi had to wonder if the storm belonged to a pair of ocean eyes and a very telling scar.

The door opened and a frame of light cast across the ground, a now-familiar figure carved out of shadow. Levi sighed.

“What you want, newbie?” Levi said, refusing to look behind him.

“I like Eren better.”

“And I like newbie better,” Levi said, glancing over as the door quietly shut and Eren took his place beside him. “Reminds you of where you are.”

“I think I have a pretty good idea.”

“We’ll see come your first birth or leg fracture.” Levi desperately wished for a cigarette now. Something to distract his hands, to keep his brain focusing on something that wasn’t the smell of fallen leaves and Eren. “Easy to come from a good school with a shiny name linked to racing royalty. S’another to prove yourself.”

“I don’t need to prove myself to anybody,” Eren said, so easily that Levi looked at him then, faintly impressed with the mettle glinting in Eren’s eyes. “And I don’t do this because it’s what my father does or did. He’s no health expert. He doesn’t bring things into life himself or stays up late with injured horses just to keep them company. He finds strong racers - good stock. He breeds and gets paid to breed with other farms. That’s not what I’m about.”

Levi blinked.

“Well -”

“And if you think Erwin hired me because of the reputation I’m attached to, then maybe you’re selling your boss’ intelligence short, too.” Eren’s gaze didn’t flinch from Levi’s, a fire to them Levi hadn’t seen coming a mile away. Those smiles and that simple laughter did a world to hide _ this _ behind it. Levi’s blood pumped faster with each staccato word Eren shot out. “If you think he took a look at me and equated me to my father without actually checking my credentials, what I’ve been and done and for whom, then you’re insulting _ him _more than even me.”

Silence stretched over them like a thin film, the night a chime of insects ready to be pricked and popped with whatever Levi next said.

“Most people know to be scared of me, y’know,” Levi said, turning away from the block of small apartments that housed the workers who chose to live onsite. He pocketed his hands and stepped to the gravely parking lot, making toward the vast main house across the training fields, windows glittering like fireflies in the distance. 

His heart both lurched and leapt when he heard Eren’s wide, lanky steps catch up and match pace. 

“I don’t spook easy. No one who works with nine-hundred pound beasts with giant teeth and stones for feet should be.”

“You’d be surprised,” Levi mumbled. They walked in silence for a time, Levi refusing to even risk a glance Eren’s way lest he be caught in the action. He wasn’t about to give an inch with this kid. “How’d you get that scar?”

“It’s impolite to ask about peoples’ scars, you know,” Eren said, but humor lofted his voice as he exhaled and looked to the stars.

And now Levi was looking. He couldn’t help it. The hard, strong line of Eren’s jaw was highlighted in the murky mist of the moon. Shit. 

“Polite is a social construct that wastes my fucking time.”

“It’s my soul scar,” Eren replied simply. He didn’t extrapolate further and Levi supposed he couldn’t rightly ask further about it without looking suspicious. 

“Shitty place for one.”

“I dunno about that. I think I like -” A series of squeaks cut the air and Eren ducked and laughed, pausing his stride to look back with a wide smile. “Did you see that - bats! One almost hit my head.”

“Yeah, we got a shitload here. Always hiding in the rafters of the stables.”

“Cute,” Eren said cheerfully, his arms swinging at his sides as they walked along.

“The fuck’re bats cute? They’re dark, tiny, and mean.”

“Nah.” Eren outright smiled at him, and Levi was getting sick of the way his brain shorted out for half a second every time he did that. “Bats are so misunderstood. They’ll cuddle right up into your hand if you give them the chance.”

Levi turned his head toward one of the practice grounds to mask his amused expression into the night. 

“You’re a hell of a weird kid.”

“You know I’m twenty-seven, right?” Eren said, not sounding in the least bit annoyed. “Same age as Mikasa.”

“You look twelve.”

Eren spat out a laugh, his voice high with humor and insult.

“I do _ not _look twelve!”

Levi couldn’t hide his smirk this time as he slid a knowing look Eren’s way.

“Bet you still get carded.”

“Bet you do, too!”

Levi’s eyes narrowed.

“Fuck you.”

“Ha!” Eren pointed at him, voice smug and victorious. “_ Knew _ it, I knew it. I might look twenty-one, but _ you’re _weird and ageless. Vampire.”

“Excuse me while I turn into a bat and fly away,” Levi muttered, face burning in the dark as he quickened his face, the spacious manor house rising up to meet them now. His apartment was above the garage, at the far end of the building, detached from the rest. He enjoyed his peace, and Erwin had always given him that. It was the least he could do when Levi jockeyed every horse they raised into victory.

“Nah,” Eren said in that infuriatingly agreeable way of his. “You’d curl up in my hand, too.”

Levi’s lungs felt too small, his chest tight as he pointedly did not look at Eren or the scar cut down his eye. 

“Like hell.”

“Do you really stay in the main house?” Eren asked in wonder as they paused at a garden gazebo, each wooden pillar entwined with vibrant green ivy and vines. Mums of autumn fire colors flared to life, bountiful and plump, trimming around the outside of the structure. Levi watched as Eren gasped in obvious pleasure and bounded up the two short steps inside. 

He spun a circle in admiration, then turned to drop his palms onto the half wall, leaning out to where Levi still stood on the grass. 

“Well, do you?” Eren asked, cocked his head, his smile oh so punchable and oddly entrancing. Levi hated it. 

“No,” Levi managed, shaking his head more to dislodge the distraction taking hold. “Over the garage. I’d kill myself before I lived with Erwin.”

Eren laughed, still leaning in the frame of the gazebo, flowers and ivy around him like a photograph. 

“You sound close. I mean I always heard you two were, and like I said this morning, I’ve watched your career from as long as I can remember -”

“Please don’t remind me,” Levi said, already weary of the ten year discrepancy of their age. 

“But you two have been together for a long time, haven’t you?” 

Levi shrugged. 

“Yeah.” He didn’t need to mention how Erwin had found him pick-pocketing rich bigwigs who haunted the local tracks and major events. Levi held back a sigh and fixed his face to stone. “Anyway, I’m going to bed.”

“_Hmmm_?” Eren blinked, his lips a soft pout of thought that he’d apparently fallen into as he’d watched Levi from his safe space in the grass. “Oh, right. See, I did walk you home!”

“You didn’t walk me anywhere. I left and you followed.” 

“I like to consider myself more of a guide, really.”

“You didn’t even know where we were going.”

“Just thank me for walking you home already,” Eren sing-songed, clearly joking.

Levi sighed and ran a hand through his hair. 

“You are certainly… persistent.”

“That’s the nicest way anyone has ever put it,” Eren said, teeth glinting in the moonlight. For the second time tonight, Levi wanted to reach out and see what that expressive mouth tasted like. 

He only huffed a short, subtle laugh. 

“Thats me. Real fuckin’ nice.” 

Eren’s smile seemed to soften around the edges, his eyes going heavy, voice dropping low, almost secretive, almost just for him. 

“Goodnight, Levi. Thanks for the walk.”

Levi lifted on hand in a half-hearted wave of recognition as he passed by the gazebo.

“You went the wrong way, kid.”

“Nah.”

By the time Levi arrived at Maria Rose’s private birthing stable at a straight sprint from manor to there, Eren’s brow already glimmered with sweat, eyes dark and narrow in pure, diluted concentration.

“Why the fuck didn’t anyone call me sooner!” Levi boomed as he dropped to his knees beside Mikasa, his hands falling beside her nearly-identical ones to massaged the mare’s heaving gut. “Jeezus fuck, people, you’d think I’d be the first -”

“_I’m _ first,” Eren snapped, eyes bright, as he spoke with careful softness, his arms elbow-deep in the behind of the horse. “I had someone call when we had the time.”

“How long has she been in labor?” Levi asked, willing to put aside this fight for later.

“Four hours,” Mikasa said. “Her water just broke. Shouldn’t be long, now.”

“_What_?” Levi snapped, then cooled his voice as Maria Rose huffed a pained breath, large dark eyes rolling back. He scoot toward her head, soothingly petting at her muzzle and velvet ears as he kept his tone even. “It’s three in the fucking morning. Someone could have called. I should _ be _here.”

“You’re here now,” Eren said, voice unerring from a shocking level of calm and he seemed to finish re-positioning the foal and pulling gloved hands out. “You wouldn’t have been of help beforehand. She’ll be birthing soon, anyway.”

Levi’s eyes went to slits. Oh, he had a _ world _of things to say in reply. But they could wait. Levi could certainly wait.

As with all things brought into this world, the ordeal was messy, painful, and hard-earned. The stable stank of blood and viscera, sweat of human and animal, of effort and a single-minded goal. A collective breath released from new mother and everyone present when a healthy, lanky foal broke from its sac and took the first full breaths of life. 

“A colt,” Eren whispered into the hush of Sasha and Mikasa attending the mare, Levi coming around to help Eren with the baby. Sweat dripped down Eren’s temples, his gaze the brightest flare of turquoise as they found Levi’s. The deep mauve shadows beneath Eren’s eyes told a story of hard work and dedication, his tired, relieved smile of the same. “You’ve got a boy, Levi.”

Levi quickly looked away from the intensity of Eren’s everything, taking care to clear out the foal’s nostrils while Eren did his own checks of the foal’s body, naval area, umbilical cord. A practice silence fell once more as Sasha worked to clear soiled hay and bedding from the birthing stall and replacing it with fresh.

After finishing his initial checks, Eren finally took a step back with the rest of them, hands on his hips with a sigh. It was too early yet for the colt to stand, but he appeared calm and comfortable as Maria Rose nosed at him and licked baby’s new fuzz. 

“Thanks for your help,” Eren slurred, sounding as exhausted as he looked. “You ladies get some rest.”

“Eren,” Mikasa said, a hand to his slumped shoulder. “You’re the one who should get some sleep. We all know what comes next, what to look for. We’ve all done this before.”

“Yeah, well.” Eren pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes sockets, pushed in pressure as he spoke. “I’d rather stay, all the same. The first twenty-four hours are important, and why would Erwin pay me to live here if he didn’t want -”

“You two can go,” Levi said, gesturing with a dismissive hand. “You’re useless for the rest of the day if you don’t get enough sleep, and you’ll be needed then. I’ll take care of this. Erwin’s gonna be fuckin’ pissed when he finds out he was out of town for this.”

“I texted him at the first stages,” Mikasa said, sighing as she rolled her shoulders. “Can confirm he was pissed.”

“Goodnight,” the girls called as they exited the stables, leaving Eren and Levi to watch the slick, all-black colt turn his face to his mother’s. 

“I really am the last person you told,” Levi said tightly.

“Erwin’s the boss,” Eren said blandly, attention still wholly watchful on the pair. “So he knew first. Sasha is the muscle, Mikasa does it all, and you’re the jockey. The math is there.”

“_Fuck you_,” Levi spat, turning on him now. “You’ve been here all of, what, two weeks? Where the hell have _ you _ been? What do _ you _ do on a day to day? Erwin is the body of this place but _ I _ am the heart, _ I _ am the blood, _ I _ keep everything and everyone here working and moving. You think you’re smart, kiddo? You don’t know shit, yet. Not as much as you think you do.”

“We _ called _ you, didn’t we?” Eren fired back, previously wan cheeks high with color. “So what the hell is your problem? You couldn’t have done anything that wasn’t meant for me to do in the first place. I don’t know how Pixis did things before me, but don’t begin to assume that just because I’m new _ here _ means I’m new to _ this _.”

“I’m -”

“You’re _ amazing_, Levi.” Eren sounded humbled, awed despite the blue fire in his eyes. “You are. We all know it. I feel it every time I watch you do what you do best. But of _ this _, here… You’re not the boss. And that’s okay. Let that be okay.”

The fury that vibrated through Levi’s limbs suddenly stilled, the heat draining from his tense limbs as they locked gazes and held. For a time, they both stood, waiting on the next words, as if it would make or break the tenuous power balance of this conversation. 

Levi was the first to look away.

“He’s standing.”

As if the conversation never happened, Eren perked into joy, exuberant in his encouraging vocalizations as he approached and delicately helped the colt’s hind quarters. Levi watched the confidence of those hands, the easy, strong gestures with which he moved, the natural benevolent aura with which he glowed throughout this entire ordeal.

To himself only, he admitted that maybe Eren really was made for this.

  
  


“Almost there,” Levi murmured, arm around Eren’s waist as they sagged into each other on the journey to Eren’s apartment. “You’re fuckin’ heavy.”

“D’you think I should go back?” Eren slurred, looking over his shoulder to where the stables stood in the far distance. “I know he fed, but -”

“You did your part, Eren.” Levi paused at the last door in the line and watched Eren fumble to get his key in the lock. “You’re useless like this. The sun has risen, day crew is in, Erwin is on his way home from the airport. Shut up, shower, and sleep.”

“Ugh,” was all Eren said as he pushed into his apartment, nearly collapsing against the door as we went. Levi followed, frowning as he noted all the unopened boxes and littering the tiny living room. 

“You’re still not unpacked? Idiot, it’s been weeks.”

“Busy,” Eren murmured and, to Levi’s mute horror, kicked off his boots at and stripped his shirt then and there. 

“Not _ that _busy,” Levi said, eyes narrowing as Eren began to head toward the short hall with bathroom at the end. He unbuttoned his jeans and began to scoot them over his ass to reveal garishly red underwear that hugged the absolutely unreal curve of his ass. “That’s just laziness.”

“Lazy, then,” Eren replied agreeably. He pressed a palm to the wall and kicked out of his jeans, his long, shapely legs as tan and unending as Levi had imagined they would be. “Shower.”

“Don’t pass out in there,” Levi said, a warning tone in his voice to hide the waver. This would be the death of him.

“Levi?”

Levi looked up sharply and, for the first time in a long time, felt his face burn to cinders as he realized there was no way Eren hadn’t noticed he’d just been admiring his body. 

Eren’s lips curved, eyes deep with exhaustion. 

“You really are important to everyone here. All of us.”

“Everyone?” Levi asked lowly, unsure why he’d spoken in the first place as he carefully watched Eren’s face for any tell. 

Eren’s attention dragged Levi from head to toe, slow and purposeful before he met Levi’s wide eyes once more.

“Especially everyone.”

A knot twisted tight in Levi’s throat, left his voice taut and thin despite himself.

“Right. Well, I’m going to go shower and -”

“Wanna join me?”

Levi stopped dead, his frame still and iced over in pure, frozen shock as he watched Eren’s hips sway as he walked to the bathroom. Arms folded, he paused and leaned in the doorway, chin tilted as he considered Levi from across the room.

“Levi?”

Inwardly shaking himself off, Levi blinked, but otherwise stayed perfectly still, a technique used against a predator rather than a simple, usually silly man like Eren Jaeger. 

“You’re delirious with exhaustion, kid.”

“One, _ not _a kid. Two, I’m only half-delirious. The other half wants to see what you’ll say.”

“Thought you didn’t do shit with people whose ass you haven’t seen yet,” Levi countered, using all the will in his body not to take a step in advance or retreat. Giving away anything about himself always felt like a crime, like a slip-up someone might use against him.

Confusion clouded Eren’s expression, the sultry look in his eyes fading before he barked a quick, ridiculous laugh.

“Oh my god, you remember that?”   
  
“Hard to forget that kind of statement.”

“Technically Mikasa said it, but yeah, I mean -” Eren glanced away, and suddenly despite his near nudity, the sexuality pulsing from him muted into bashfulness. “I dated Jean until eighteen. At seventeen, I woke up with this scar and after that it kind of dawned on me I didn’t want to be with anyone who this didn’t belong to. We hung on for less than a year after. I broke up with him and I, er -” Eren blushed from strong, muscular chest to neck to cheeks. “I haven’t been with anyone since. The people interested in me… I’d ask about their soul scar first. If it didn’t match, I didn’t want to put them through the eventual, inevitable break up.”

“And yet you’re asking me into the shower with you?” Levi asked, suddenly exhausted with this entire situation. From the day, from their argument, from this, and from trying to pretend like none of it affect him. “Idiot.”

Eren’s grin took Levi by surprise.

“Maybe that was my way of finding out what your ass is like.”

“My ass is fine,” Levi deadpanned. They were still conversing with a hallway between them, and yet neither moved. Everything about the two of them felt like a game of chicken. “How’d you hurt it?”

“My ass?” Eren asked with a laugh. “It’s stupid -”

“I could only assume it is.”

“I was thirteen and walking on the white picket fence around our house - balancing on it like a gymnastics beam type thing. Y’know the kinds of fences that have the zigzag up and down tops?”

Realization dawned and Levi pinched the bridge of his nose with thumb and forefinger.

“Please don’t tell me you fell and impaled your ass cheek on a fence post.”

Eren’s cheeks blew up with a laugh held at bay.

“Okay,” he eked out. “I won’t tell you that.”

“You’re an embarrassment,” Levi said flatly, his heart pounding like hooves against his chest. “To both of us.”

Eren’s sudden laugh cut off, his eyes bulging comically as he burst into motion, making a beeline for Levi until strong hands clamped around his biceps and held him at less than arm’s length, Eren’s attention fixed and fierce.

“You’re - _ us_, did you say _ us_? You said us.”

“I did say that,” Levi said, even and quiet. He was sure Eren would be able to feel the pulse taking over his entire body by now. 

“Why?” Eren leaned in, dark brows screwed up, expression intense. “You said that, _ why_?”

“Because I’ve been wondering what idiot planted a scar on my ass where they’d never be able to see in the first place.”

Levi forced himself to keep hold of that gaze, to watch the wonder and awe swirl vivid and true in Eren’s eyes, the smile that followed like a punch to the gut with an honesty Levi had never been willing to show out loud. 

“Levi,” Eren said, his voice and hands vibrating as he spoke, an energy barely quelled. “Take a shower with me, please.”

Levi blinked, flicked a brow.

“Weird way of asking to check out my ass, kid.”

Eren’s sudden, bright peal of laughter warned of the incoming hug, but Levi found his face smashed into Eren’s chest, that earnest heartbeat aligning with Levi’s own overwhelmed tattoo.

“Levi,” Eren whispered and yes, his voice sounded wet and spilling over. “Levi, are you really -”

“Pretty sure, yeah,” Levi croaked, risking his very armor to lightly wrap his arms around Eren’s waist. “Guess the only way to confirm is to get me naked, though.”

They did shower. If that’s a person called a shower - the wet exploration of hands, Eren’s palms slicking over Levi’s ass and around, traversing his thick thighs and filling cock. They washed their hair in record time but soaped each other’s bodies up with eternal care, sharing lips and breath and touch in the rising steam of their exploration. 

It wasn’t until they stumbled into the bedroom, less than half-dry, did the surge of haste take them, _ hard _.

Eren appeared as unconscious of his body as Levi was, both comfortable in their nudity as each other as Levi straddled Eren’s lap on the edge of the bed and looked at Eren hard. Droplets still clung to the thick fan of Eren’s lashes, that telling scar cutting through a thick brow like an arrow pointing to the right man all along. 

Finally giving in to the urge that grabbed him every damn day he saw Eren’s hair pulled back, Levi dove a hand into that sopping wet length, twisted his fist to curl it once around his palm and yanked. Eren’s bright, high noise arrowed straight to Levi’s cock, only thickening the obvious lust he barely kept at bay as they caught each other’s eyes.

Breathing tightly controlled in comparison to Eren’s shallow heaving chest, Levi leaned in, nearly nose to nose, enough to smell the endless cups of coffee on Eren’s breath from the night they’d spent bringing life into the world. 

Gritting his back teeth against the clear invitation of Eren’s bared throat to bite, Levi brushed his lips across the corner of Eren’s kiss flushed ones. 

“I want to fuck you, Eren,” he murmured, deep and velvet as he felt Eren’s thighs shiver beneath him, the thick head of his cock bobbing back to tap insistently at Levi’s stomach. “Will you let me?”

“Oh _ god_,” Eren breathed out on a shaky exhale, fingertips digging into Levi’s slim hips. “God, yes, _ fuck yes_, fuck me ‘til the sun comes up.”

“_Hmmm_.” Levi hid the curve of his lips in the length of Eren’s delectable neck, shifting to whisper at Eren’s ear. “Sun’s already up. Is this an invitation to fuck you for the next twenty-hours?”

“_Yes_.” Eren outright whimpered, shameless as he rolled his hips up to rub his needy cock along Levi’s belly. “Yes to all that, yeah, now, tomorrow, every day, _ all _ day, it’s -”

Eren moaned into Levi’s mouth as he took it hard, bursting past Eren’s parted lips with strong sweeps of tongue, a hunger for this person new and sharp, almost painful in intensity. He barely knew this man, but the way he opened for Levi without a second thought, both body and emotions filleted open with twin sharp swords was a heady power, both for what Levi held over Eren and vice versa. 

They toppled back to the mattress in a damp tangle, Eren’s limbs endless and bronze in the slats of buttery morning light striping across the bed. Levi was so used to being the aggressor, the hungriest, the most rushed of the two, that Eren’s frantic hands and eager mouth, all fuckable and already debauched, left him shaking to the bones, an awesome kind of shock to the system as Eren eagerly rose to meet his every scratch and grab and bite with one of his own. 

And when Eren slipped his own long fingers between his lips and got them sloppy slick, reaching between their bodies to open himself with impatience glittering in his eyes -

Levi was dizzy, dazzled. Entirely screwed. 

“Condoms,” Levi bit off, three fingers stretched into Eren’s unholy inferno hot body, his ass clenching around him every time he’d tried to scissor him further. It was like Eren _ wanted _ to be fucked so it hurt. The mere insinuation of the thought was like a hook in Levi’s heart, reeled in further toward Eren without a damn concern for his self preservation.

“_Fuck_.” Eren sounded more annoyed at being stopped than anything, gasping as he lifted his hips away from Levi’s hand to roll on his stomach and reached for the nightstand. Levi followed, straddling Eren’s thighs shut with his own stronger ones. 

“Complaining?” Levi murmured, taking the risk and slapping Eren clean across the ass, the satisfying jiggle and blood-flush handprint rising to the skin’s surface clouding over whatever Eren said in reply. 

“Just _ take _ them already,” Eren whined, hips rising, his pretty, red asscheeks swaying, inviting. 

Levi it down on his bottom lip and definitively, purposely said nothing about how fucking glorious that ass was and how glad he was the scar hadn’t stuck to their original owner.

Neither of them could waste more time. The humid rise of their arousal clung to Levi’s skin as he encouraged Eren to his knees, face down in the pillows to muffle his moans, opening Eren anew with lube that glistened down those trembling inner thighs, fingertips brushing Eren’s thick, hanging cock before squeezing too hard, keeping him off guard until Eren’s begging split and scattered into nonsensical cries.

By the time Levi dug fingertips into Eren’s hips and sunk into him with a hiss, his shoulders and spine prickled with sweat and he could swear Eren was sobbing into the mattress, his breath hiking his entire body with in frame-wracking hiccup. 

Slow was not an option. 

The visceral, wet slaps of hips and cock and willing hole deafened Levi’s senses down to their connection, faster, faster, Eren’s arms spread out like a man shot as he fisted the sheets and drove his ass back with a fervor that threatened to take Levi’s sight altogether. The air had shrieked from the room, from their lungs, no room for talk or sound but for struggled breaths and tears and the sweat dripping from Levi’s temples and chin onto the small of Eren’s back. 

Levi reached around to sheath Eren’s dribbling cock in his palm, but reality cut off altogether, a white-out of sound and sight as Eren’s body instantly convulsed around him, wild, erratic throbs and pulses that milked Levi into following close with a sob that came out silent. 

The last thing Levi was conscious of was his starfished body outstretched in Eren’s bed, his head swimming, throat dry as a desert, and Eren murmuring something soothing and unreasonably kind as he cleaned Levi up. The second thing he was conscious of was the glaring sun screaming into his eyes from the crack of the nearly closed curtains.

Groaning, he rolled and promptly hit a wall of warm muscle. 

Fully awake in an instant, Levi’s eyes popped open, instantly narrowing on the now-familiar back. The sheets and pooled to their feet at some point, and the sleek profile of Eren’s frame lay bare in the sunshine glow settled against the creamy curtains. 

They must have instantly passed out for the exhaustion of the night.. and day. No surprise Levi didn’t have a memory of his head even hitting the pillow.

Levi took stock of his own body and realized everything hurt like a bitch. Eren had given him a run for his money, that much was certain.

Eren’s sleep-graveled voice rasped into the peaceful silence.

“Can feel you watchin’ me a mile away.”

“That so,” Levi said, for lack of anything better. He rarely stayed for the morning, but since this was the same morning, maybe that made it different. Maybe Eren made everything different. 

“And you watch me a lot,” Eren murmured, rolling onto his stomach, face in his pillow, but the corner of his curved lips peeked out all the same. 

Levi closed his eyes and kept his voice flat.

“That so.”

Eren shifted, and Levi could tell that candid gaze was on him, too. 

“That’s so.” 

“You knew way before I did,” Eren said softly, surprising Levi enough to look at him, a brow twitching upward in question. Eren sighed and held his gaze. “You were disappointed it was me?”

“No,” Levi instantly replied, simple and true. “I was pissed off that it was anybody.”

Eren frowned, but didn’t seem upset.

“And now?”

“Eh,” Levi said, reaching out to brush Eren’s nest of hair from his face, his thumb brushing over the scar that told a story of both his life and Eren’s in turn. “I think you look good with me on you.”

“Oh?” Eren’s eyes lit up, his smile breathing to life, brighter than the sun urging against the window. “I think that’s one thing we agree on.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I'm not interested in any horse-related fic corrections. Just let these guys get it on in peace.


End file.
